Ashdown VP ( Viewpoint)

Between 10:00-14:00 We had 7 good sightings of a pale male Honey Buzzard which wing shimmered 13 times,watched a Common Buzzard bring a snake into its chicks on the nest.Kestrel,Red Kite,Hobby & Raven noted.Thanks to VJ for letting us use his picture.

Some residents of De Montfort Road, #Lewes , have just reported that they have two #Swifts in their nest box! It's one of the Peak boxes which we funded in April 2021 to expand the existing colony of two nests there. This gives hope to all of us with waiting nest boxes!

Swallow nesting surveys were in full swing this week, with three farmyards checked and nests monitored for the BTO nest record scheme. A range of nesting stages were observed, mostly with eggs or young, although one pair has already successfully fledged a brood of five chicks!

Surely not tree cutting in the middle of the breeding season 😲
B & H Wildlife Forum Mayor of Brighton & Hove Sussex Wildlife Trust 🦔 Sussex Ornithology Sussex Biodiversity

Secret world of 2 Lesser Spotted Woodpecker chicks a few days old in nest cavity. Both adults feeding & brooding, zooming straight into hole making no sound. No other LSW seen/heard in 7 hrs searching known LSW areas in New Forest y'day. No wonder nests are so hard to find!

A surprise sighting at Friston Forest today, near the Gallops was a teneral Norfolk Hawker. Last year many were seen in Sussex, so hopefully 2024 will be even better. British Dragonfly Society Sussex Wildlife Trust 🦔 Sussex Biodiversity

An absolute beauty of a moth, White Ermine in Sussex today.
Sussex Moth Group UK Moth Identification Sussex Wildlife Trust 🦔

The Thetford Forest #nightjar season started well with many back on territory. Only 7 caught but 3 returning from 2023 including this male yeilding our first multi-sensor tag retrieval. Novel flight height data will help reveal the risks posed by wind turbines on migration.

Found some poachers on my local patch this morning at 0515am playing calls of Siberian Rubythroat (Luscinia calliope 红喉歌鸲 Hóng hóu gē qú). Called 110 and police came. They are in big trouble now, and rightly so. (Keeping these rubythroats alive for you in western Europe!)

This is a distant heavy crop bur thought it was worth posting as its the first time I've personally witnessed this. Watched this female Cuckoo go to ground then come up a minute or so later with a Pipit egg, obviously she had just laid hers to replace it!

Up to 10 #Swifts during the day around the High Street, #Lewes , 8 of them mobbing a Sparrowhawk at midday on School Hill! Quieter this evening but both Swifts returned to nest 3 at St. Anne's Church. Up to 26 nests now, including returns to this nest box in De Montfort Road.

Two Spotted Flycatchers at Sheepcote around midday.
Sussex Ornithology Sussex Birding

Great moth night at Benfield Hill nature reserve. Trying to decide whether this Pretty Chalk Carpet outshone the Northern Lights 😂
Thanks to Alice Parfitt and Dave Green for leading.
Buglife Sussex Moth Group Sussex Wildlife Trust 🦔

Richard Worsnip Philip Stout Swift Awareness Week Swifts can't perch, they have no hind claw (no 'opposable thumb') and have lost their connection with the earth. Once they fledge the nest, apart from raising their young, they spend their whole lives on the wing.

What to do when finding a grounded swift thread.
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Beachy Head: just had a Little Bunting at RAF Monument flew east. 07:30 Sussex Birding

One Garden Against the World is published by Bloomsbury Books UK in 4 weeks! A year in my garden in the context of the climate and biodiversity crisis, it's angry but also joyous – think Silent Spring meets My Family and Other Animals. Pre-order here: linktr.ee/onegardenagain…

Well it's good to know that one of my Swift boxes is being used, House Sparrows are always welcome 😊
Sussex Ornithology UKSwifts BTO